Corbett shows some signs of life

Don’t start throwing the dirt on Tom Corbett just yet.

A funny thing happened on the way to the coronation of Democrat Tom Wolf as the next governor of Pennsylvania.

Suddenly the Republican incumbent is doing his best Lazarus imitation. Corbett was considered dead in the water just a few months ago.

After spending $10 million of his own money to come out of nowhere and eviscerate a field of better-known Democrats to capture the nomination, the Jeepdriving Wolf was expected to show Corbett the door.

And for months it looked like he was going to do just that.

Aside from money, Wolf had the one thing going for him that has dominated this campaign. His name is not Corbett. If you get the feeling that a lot of people in this gubernatorial race are voting not necessarily for Wolf as they are against Corbett, you are not alone.

Saying Corbett had a rough first term is a bit like saying the Titanic had a shaky maiden voyage. The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in the North Atlantic. Corbett collided head-on with a $4 billion budget deficit and was looking at going under in a sea of red ink.

He had been swept into office after gaining a solid reputation as a corruption-busting attorney general. Oh, and one other thing. He pledged not to raise taxes.

Staring into a $4 billion abyss, he decided to swing the budget ax instead.

He’s been trying to repair his image ever since.

Now, just days before the election, Corbett is trying to prove his critics wrong. Down double digits in most polls for months, he’s now closed the gap. A poll done by the Louisianabased GOP firm the Keystone Report shows the governor now trailing by only 7 points, a 49-42 margin.

There is, of course, one other lone voice out there who has been on the record now for months saying the unpopular governor would be re-elected. That would be mine. I predicted a Corbett victory for the same reason so many people are voting for Wolf, not because of anything he has said or done, by because his name is not Corbett. I’m bucking the trend because of those three letters that precede his name.

Gov. Corbett is a sitting incumbent, and if there is one thing Pennsylvanians don’t do, it’s turn out incumbent governors. In fact, since the state has allowed a governor to seek a second term, it’s never happened. Instead, we like to alternative parties every eight years.

Corbett has tested that theory mightily.

Part of it is his own doing. Corbett was a very good attorney general. He’s not been nearly as successful as governor.

That’s in large part because, as the state’s top public official, image is everything. Ed Rendell got away with a lot — including dumping a fiscal mess in Corbett’s lap — because people liked him. He was the ulti- mate schmoozer, at one point as mayor of Philadelphia even donning a bathing suit and jumping into a pool with a bunch of kids to kick off the summer season.

Corbett doesn’t have that gift for public relations.

His budgets were a disaster. Faced with the loss of federal stimulus funds Rendell used to paper over his own budget gaps, Corbett picked up his ax and went to work.

Instead of being revered as bringing common sense and restraint back to Harrisburg, he became reviled as the man responsible for cutting $2 billion in education funding.

Part of Corbett’s problem was his inability to sell — or explain — any of his programs. That and a penchant for putting his foot in his mouth made Corbett a bit gun shy. In the void, he allowed others to define him — and his cuts. Not a good idea. He became the bad guy.

Because if you ever met him, you’d understand that’s not Tom Corbett. I’ve been in his company several times. I distinctly remember the first time, convinced that I was going to thoroughly dislike a guy branded as insular, inconsiderate, almost to the point of being uncaring when it comes to the effect his budget cuts were having on Pennsylvanians.

Instead the guy could not have been nicer.

In the past few weeks, Corbett has taken the offensive and decided to tell his own story. Is it too late? Maybe.

Just don’t bury him yet. Philip E. Heron is the editor of the Delaware County Daily Times.